In My Shoes: The Rewrite
by Princess of Ithilien
Summary: NEW CHAP 4 Sammy just wanted a nice, relaxing summer break before returning to the drag that school usually is. And she thought she was getting her wish...
1. Prologue

**A/N: Okay, so, here's the deal. I've left this story along for far, far, far, far, far too long. So I'm rewriting it. All of it. And the reason I'm posting it as 'In My Shoes: The Rewrite' is because I'm reworking the plot and storyline that I had laid out so far. I'm leaving the old version up because that's basically a completely different story that I might want to revisit and rewrite at some later point.**

**In My Shoes is NOT the official title of this story, it's just temporary until I think of a better one, one that ties into whatever the story is gonna turn into... and to let you guys know I'm BACK in this fandom, and I'm sorry I left you all hanging on this story so freaking long. Time got away from me, in a major way. **

**Prologue**

After the Farewell Dance, Heather was ten times worse, but it barely mattered, because it was summer, and I rarely saw her outside of the practices for the summer softball league. We, of course, ended up on the same team. And whenever she saw me, sure, she still made the same biting little insults, still glared daggers in my general direction, just being typical, charming Heather. Grams says she's just jealous. _I _say she's just psycho. But like I said, it's _summer, _and I'm free. After the camping trip, things settled down, and I was getting used to a nice, calm, relaxing do-nothing summer. I shouldn't known things wouldn't stay that way for long.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, so here's Chapter 1. Now, I'm kind of debating on how to go about writing this story. I don't have a plot completely nailed down, and mysteries are really, really hard to write. I kinda want to just write the entire thing and then post it, but I'm not really sure. I just don't want to get stuck in a plot snag where I find out I need to go back and change some stuff... I'm not really sure where I'm taking it yet, so I guess we'll just see what happens. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sammy Keyes.**

**Chapter 1**

Sometimes things can be going along great, and it lulls you into a false sense of security. Like, all of a sudden, you have no problems. Awesome, right? Wrong. Because those are the times when life is just working up a nasty surprise to spring on you.

To my credit, I didn't want her to come. I mean, yeah, things between my mom and I had gotten a little better, but at the end of the day, she's still pretty much turned her back on me and Grams to go chase her dreams. Meanwhile I live out of a single drawer of my grandmother's dresser. And Hudson keeps telling me I should just move past that point, and I have in some ways and in others I haven't.

But then one night, Grams and I had just finished eating dinner and I was loading the plates and silverware into the dishwasher when the phone rang. And I knew right away who it was. My Mother. The infamous Lana-Keyes-Oh-Wait-Dominique-Windsor-But-Then-Lana-Again-And-Then-Back-To-Dominique mother. Because I swear, the phone rings differently. I don't know why, but when it's my mother on the other side of the phone, it's like all of her Hollywood fakiness comes across in the sound of the phone ringing.

So Grams picks it up and of course I'm not surprised at all when she goes, "Lana! It's so good to hear from you." And then she's silent for a while, probably listening to my mom chatter on about her soap op- oh, I'm sorry, _daytime drama_. Every once in a while Hudson makes me sit down and watch _The_ _Lords of Willow Heights _(isn't that such a dumb name, too? Nobody is a Lord anymore unless you're like, from England.) which is basically the only time I see my mother. And the plots are just too ridiculous for words. Eventually I get to laughing so hard and mocking it so much that Hudson just looks at me in That Way and turns it off.

I close the dishwasher and go plop on the couch, not even bothering to look at Grams, who I'm sure is trying to catch my eye so she can tell my mom that I want to talk with her. The last conversation that I had with my mother ended in my telling her that no, I did not really want her to come for the Fourth of July. There's a lot of reasons for it, but mainly it's because the last time she came, she was recognized, and if I hadn't covered up for her, _my _entire cover would've been blown.

I turned on the television and flipped idly through the channels, listening alternately to Grams murmuring encouraging words and the dialogue of a cheap action flick.

"When do you get here?" My ears perk up at the words and I mute the T.V., looking over the back of the couch at Grams, who's facing the wall where we hang the calendar. So she decided she was going to come, even when I told her I didn't want her to. Typical Lana.

"No, that's great. I'm sure Samantha will be thrilled to see you."

I kinda do that whole cough that you do when you're thinking, 'Yeah, right,' but Grams gives me a look so I stop.

A few minutes later I hear Grams say goodbye and hang up, and then the room is silent. I had never bothered to turn the volume on the T.V. back up, so the room was just quiet. I knew she was waiting for me to say something.

"So Lady Lana decided to show for the Fourth, huh?" I ask, even though I knew what the answer was.

"Don't call your mother that, Samantha," Grams says in this long-suffering tone. "And yes, she is coming. She's supposed to be here either the first or the second, and she'll probably be staying until the sixth, maybe the seventh."

Great. An entire week of Lana.

I glance at the clock and then I look outside. It's eight-thirty but it's still full light outside.

"I'm gonna go see Hudson." I say, getting up off of the couch.

Grams doesn't say anything, just nods and watches me go. Within two minutes I'm down on the street, rolling on my skateboard towards my favorite place in the world. The place where my problems seem to get solved.

Hudson's porch.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, um, whoops? It wasn't supposed to be a month before I updated! Sorry! I guess I got caught up...

Sorry that this chapter is kind of short! Future chapters will be longer.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sammy Keyes.**

**Chapter 2**

There is some sort of magic surrounding Hudson Graham's porch. Maybe it's him, because he's really awesome for an old guy. Maybe it's the combination of the ever-present cake and tea. Maybe it's his advice. I don't really know what it is, but his porch is where I go when I'm troubled.

"Hey, Hudson!" I wave to him, jumping off of my skateboard.

"Sammy!" He put his newspaper on the table beside him and took his feet off of the bannister.

"Nice boots. Are they new?" Hudson's signature cowboy boots were swirls of blue and black.

He nodded. "What brings you over?"

I plopped into my favorite chair and sighed, closing my eyes. "Lady Lana, naturally."

I could imagine Hudson wincing. He didn't like my calling my mother that any more than Grams did, but I knew he wouldn't say anything.

"How is your mother these days?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. She's coming to visit." I remembered the last time my mother came. It ended with me finding out Heather Acosta and I share the same birthday, owning a pink angora sweater, and finding a bunch of dead cats, but that's another story.

"I'm guessing you're not very excited?" Hudson's tone made it more of a statement than a question.

"Well, gee, Hudson, I don't know. I mean, she abandons me here and goes through some sort of weird identity crisis and..." I trailed off. I didn't want to sound like a whining little kid. Most of the time, I am fine with my mother doing what she's doing. Grams and I get along just fine. I mean, sure, climbing up the fire escape gets old, but I'm used to it. It's familiar. It's routine.

My mother coming throws off the entire routine that is my life. I have to move to the floor or bunk with Grams, which is never an option because that woman is a snoring _machine._ And the three of us get overly emotional and everything just gets thrown off. For weeks. It's the ripple effect. She comes, and the ripple starts. And it just keeps going, wider and wider, effecting everything in it's path.

After talking to Hudson for a little while longer, I decided to go. It was getting dark and Grams doesn't like me out at night.

I decided to take a wider loop back home, just to stall. I went down the length of Cypress, in the opposite direction that I usually take.

I'm just trudging along, carrying my skateboard under one arm because I don't feel like riding, when all of a sudden I hear this long, drawn-out honk.

Farther down the street, there's a beat up gray car sitting in the driveway of a house that as far as I know, nobody has lived in for years. The windows are all boarded up and all of the grass is either overgrown or dead. I've never seen anybody coming in or out, and there's been a For Sale in the yard so long that you can barely read what it says anymore.

So seeing somebody honking outside of that house, as if trying to get somebody to hurry up or come out or something, it was really weird.

I kind of slowed down as I passed by, hoping to get a glimpse of, well, something. But nothing happened. The honking stopped and the guy just sat there, his car idling. I turned the corner before I could see anything.

Shrugging it off as just another weird Santa Martina occurence, I went home. Grams was already in bed when I got there, so I just curled up on the couch with my afghan and Dorito and closed my eyes.

Sleep didn't come very easily. My mind was occupied, running laps from subject to subject. I would go from thinking of my mother to thinking of Hudson to thinking about the weird positions that cats sleep in, back to my mother, then to the guy in the car. I finally fell asleep, chasing a memory of my mother pushing me in a swing when I was little.

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	4. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm sorry. Trust me, I know how long it's been. And all I can say is that I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sammy Keyes, but I am happy that the next book is coming out October 14!!

**Chapter 3**

The week or so before my mother arrived flew by. I swear that time warped itself and went by faster, because all of a sudden, she was here.

I purposely avoided being home when she got there. I had called Marissa but she was busy. Her mother was forcing them to engage in "family bonding activities". I laughed and Marissa groaned.

So I grabbed my skateboard and cruised around town for a little while. I didn't have any money, so I couldn't stop anywhere where spending would be involved. I was riding down the sidewalk on Cypress when I realized that the same gray car from a week ago was coming down the street, really slowly. And then I realized it was keeping pace with _me. _

I glanced up in the direction of Hudson's house. I was about halfway there. I couldn't tell yet if he was sitting on his porch or not.

I was just about to speed up when I hear a squeaky "Hey!" The voice grated on my ears.

I glanced in the direction of the car without really seeing anything. I turned back to face forwards when I heard it again, less squeaky. "Hey! Hey, kid!"

I hate it when people call me 'kid'. And since I was already a little, well, let's say disgruntled, due to my mother coming to town and everything, I totally flip out on this guy. I stop my skateboard, go right up to the window, and say, in this really bratty way, "Yeah, _buddy?"_

This accomplishes nothing, but the guy stops his car. He's a pretty weird looking dude, I've got to say. He looks pretty average, brown hair, normal face, and then you notice the piercings. Both of his eyebrows are pierced, his lip is pierced, and his nose is pierced, like a bull's. An entire ear is covered in earrings, just like Heather Acosta, but the other ear is bare.

And then I notice this guy's _eyes. _One is this really, really dark brown, and the other is the brightest blue I've ever seen. And yeah, I've heard about people with eyes like that, but I do a completely obvious double take because I've never seen somebody have them in real life.

He doesn't mention my scrutiny, just gives me a once-over and looks me straight in the eye.

"You know Hudson Graham?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Something about this guy seems off. I don't know what, just something. Okay, maybe his eyes are just freaking me out.

"Just wanted to check in on him. Knew him from way back."

Now, the way this guy is talking, he's Hudson's age and they've known each other for ages, and just lost touch. But the way this guy looks, he's not a day over twenty-five.

"From way back when?" I ask.

"Just from a long time ago, kid."

"The name is _Sammy."_ I mentally slap myself for telling a stranger my name. Not that I haven't done it plenty enough times before, but this guy is giving me the creeps. It's like his one blue eye is staring into my soul and the other eye is reading my thoughts. Okay, maybe that's a little on the dramatic side, but you get my drift.

"Well, _Sammy,"_ he says with a smirk. "Tell Hudson that Ray says hi."

I nod and he drives away, blowing a cloud of exhaust right into my face. At this point I'm not disgruntled anymore. Mix full-on mad with a tablespoon of upset and you've got my mood.

So I'm pretty much stomping up the steps to Hudson's porch when I realize that talking to Hudson isn't really what I want to do right now. Because he would reason me out of my bad mood, soothe me and tell me that spending a few days with my mother really isn't going to be so terrible, how she's really trying. And I am just not in the mood for it.

So I stomp back down the steps without knocking and get back on my skateboard, counting the cracks in the sidewalk as I roll slowly over them. Before I know it I'm passing the mall, winding along the path, totally focused on my feet.

And I was just noticing a new rip in the rubber toe of my high-top when I feel my board collide with something and I go flying. My body hits something that makes an 'oomph' sound and we both to the ground. My elbow scrapes concrete and I grit my teeth, trying to get a look at whatever or whoever I ran into, because, boy, are they going to get chewed out!

A/N: I'm hoping to get the next chapter up in the next couple of weeks, but that was my intention with this chapter and it has been nearly two months. I apologize... it's hard to be consistent with updating. Inspiration comes and goes as it pleases and time flies quite steadily and before you know it a whole month has passed. So. I'm sorry.


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